AI Cyber Readiness Summit

Welcome to the AI Cyber Readiness Summit
Jeff Peters, Director of Brand & Content Marketing, Infosec

Keynote — The AI-ready cyber team: Turning disruption into readiness
Keatron Evans, Vice President, AI Enablement & Strategy, Cengage

AI is changing how organizations build, defend and govern technology — and how leaders plan, fund and manage the investments behind it. Keatron Evans opened the summit with a forward-looking keynote on how AI is reshaping cyber risk, cybersecurity work and the capabilities teams need to build next. He shared where organizations often get AI planning right and wrong, including the financial considerations leaders should account for as AI adoption grows.

AI readiness pulse: What security teams are seeing now
James Stanger, Chief Technology Evangelist, CompTIA | Theo Nasser, CEO & Co-Founder, Right-Hand Cybersecurity | Sam D'Antonio, Moderator & Copywriter, Infosec

Findings from Infosec's AI Cyber Readiness Pulse Poll framed a discussion on where organizations stand today and what is shaping their next AI cyber readiness priorities. The conversation examined AI-enabled threats, governance challenges, workforce capability gaps and practical steps leaders can consider as they build AI-ready cyber teams.

AI governance: “That’s cool! Should we do that?”
Starr McFarland, Course Author, Infosec

Implementing AI responsibly isn’t a zero-sum game. We want a pro-innovation mindset. We want to use and create all the cool things. But we also want to create boundaries so that we can innovate safely and in ways that benefit humanity. This session examined the legal and regulatory landscape surrounding AI — and talk about best practices for implementation. 

Securing generative AI in the enterprise: Risks, controls and safe deployment
John Bassili, Cybersecurity Instructor, Infosec

Generative AI tools such as copilots, chatbots, document assistants and AI-powered applications can improve productivity, but they also introduce new security and privacy risks. Attendees learned how sensitive data can be exposed, how attackers can manipulate AI systems and what security controls organizations should implement before deploying GenAI solutions.

Beyond signatures: Using deep learning for network anomaly detection
Dwayne Roberts, Sr. Technical Trainer, Infosec

Traditional signature-based detection only catches what it already knows. In this session, we explored how deep learning — specifically, variational autoencoders (VAEs) — can identify anomalous network behavior without relying on predefined rules or labeled datasets. Using a live Python notebook, attendees saw how a VAE learns to model “normal” traffic and flag deviations that signature-based tools miss entirely.

Live instructor Q&A: What AI-ready cyber teams need next
Dwayne Roberts, Sr. Technical Trainer, Infosec | John Bassili, Cybersecurity Instructor, Infosec | Starr McFarland, Course Author, Infosec | Jeff Peters, Director of Brand & Content Marketing, Infosec

Following three instructor-led sessions, this moderated Q&A brought the instructors together for a practical discussion on how AI is changing cybersecurity work. Panelists connected the session takeaways, compared the capabilities different roles need to strengthen next and answered audience questions on how leaders and practitioners can turn AI readiness priorities into action.

Workshop — From risk to readiness: Your AI cyber plan in action
Iva Amos, Sr. Cybersecurity Curriculum Developer & Manager, Infosec

AI is already in your environment through your tools, your vendors and your people. The question isn’t whether you have a perfect AI strategy — it’s whether you can see what’s running, govern it and act when something goes wrong. This hands-on workshop helped security leaders take stock of the AI in their environment and build a practical plan to close their biggest readiness gaps.